Project Inspire: 5 Minutes to Change the World-Launch !

MasterCard Worldwide and the Singapore National Committee for UN Women Launch Second Edition of Project Inspire: 5 Minutes to Change the World 

Ready to change the world? Project Inspire 2012 is here!

Project Inspire: 5 Minutes to Change the World is a joint initiative by the Singapore Committee for UN Women and MasterCard Worldwide to present 18-35 year old changemakers with a 5-minute platform to pitch their inspired story to the world.

Kenyan and East African NGO’s and NPO’s are encouraged to submit their entry through www.5minutestochangetheworld.org  for a chance to win a Women’s Empowerment Grant for their particular program.

The winning entry receives a USD 25,000 grant to go towards creating a sustainable impact in the lives of disadvantaged women and girls in Asia/Pacific, Middle East or Africa

Why Women?

o   Women are less likely to have access to land, credit, decent jobs even though a growing body of research shows that the achievement of gender equality has enormous socio-economic ramifications. Occupational segregation and gender wage gaps continue to persist in all parts of the world.
o   Empowered women and girls have a truly transformative role to play in their communities but they are rarely afforded the opportunities that will allow them to fulfill their enormous potential.
o   Various fields such as entrepreneurship, community health, agriculture and technology provide potential opportunities to empower women

To qualify for the USD 25,000 Women’s Empowerment grant, any Kenyan project must meet the following requirements:

o   The program must enable disadvantaged women and girls to attain sustained livelihood through entrepreneurship
o   Beneficiaries must be women or girls in Asia/Pacific, Middle East or Africa
o   Must be an existing women’s empowerment program
o   Submissions can take form of a 5-minute video or 1-page written proposal
o   Participants can be men and women from anywhere in the world